


am I ready for love or maybe just a best friend (Should there be a difference?)

by LilacsAndLilies



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Arguing, Avengers Tower, Bisexual Peter Parker, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gay Harley Keener, He Just Doesn't Know It Yet, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Misunderstandings, Movie Night, POV Outsider, Science Fair, Tony Stark Acting as Harley Keener's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Wedding Fluff, only a little tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:27:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24899929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilacsAndLilies/pseuds/LilacsAndLilies
Summary: 5 Times people misunderstood Peter and Harley's relationship, and 1 time everyone saw it in perfect clarity
Relationships: Harley Keener & Tony Stark, Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 24
Kudos: 413





	am I ready for love or maybe just a best friend (Should there be a difference?)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [enzhe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/enzhe/gifts).



> Happy Birthday Enzhe!
> 
> Title from Turning Out by AJR

**1: Brothers**

It started when Tony had taken them both out for ice cream after school. Tony had called it a reward for finally finishing midterms week. Peter and Harley were both so brain dead that anything would be appreciated. Still, the idea of ice cream definitely perked them up. 

It was just the three of them, sitting in the mostly empty store, talking through test questions and funny things that happened that day. Peter and Harley sat, fingers intertwined as they ate, occasionally stealing spoonfuls from the other person's bowl.

In the middle of a particularly long question, an old lady walked in. She hobbled over to the fridge and grabbed a carton of plain vanilla ice cream and paid for it. As she was leaving the store, she walked by the table, smiling as she saw Tony watching the two boys discuss. She moved closer and said to him, "Your sons seem so intelligent, you must be proud of them. It's so nice to see two brothers interact without fighting." She turned and walked away, missing how Peter and Harley both paused their argument and gagged. 

"Brothers? Ewwww." Harley drew out the noise, looking over at the old woman. 

Tony just smirked. "You’re the one who keeps saying I ‘adopted’ both of you.”

“Yeah, but I meant that in a less weird way.” 

Peter piped in. “You parent both of us, but that doesn’t make us siblings, that’s gross.”

“Well, even if her second sentence was wrong, the first one was right. I’m proud of you.” Tony smiled, watching Peter blush at the statement. 

“Stop being a sap, old man.” Harley grinned, shoving another spoonful of ice cream in his mouth.

* * *

**2: Best Friends**

From there on, it seemed like people were misunderstanding their relationship everywhere they went.

Peter and Harley were curled up together on the couch, watching a movie. Peter’s legs were on top of Harley’s and Harley’s arm was slung across Peter’s shoulders. They were watching Pirates of the Caribbean, prompted by Peter’s realization that he hadn’t seen it in a while. 

There was a piece of popcorn that had somehow ended up in Peter’s hair. Harley pulled it out, setting it aside on the table. Peter looked up, his confusion turning to a grateful smile as he saw what was happening. 

It was at that moment that Steve Rogers walked in. The Avengers had settled back into the tower, and tensions had mostly dissipated, but that didn’t stop Tony from trying to keep as much space as possible between the superheroes and the two teenagers. Harley could count on one hand the number of times he had spoken to Captain America. 

The man in question grabbed something from the kitchen counter before standing to look at whatever the boys were watching. Harley could feel Steve’s eyes pointed at them. He tried not to turn around and look at the man, hoping he would simply leave him and Peter alone to their snuggle fest.

“It’s nice to see both of you like this.” Apparently that was too much to hope for. “Both of you seem like such close friends. You remind me of myself and Bucky.” 

Harley snorted at that.  _ Friends _ . More than enough people at school speculated that the great Captain America and Sergeant Barnes were dating, but apparently even the good captain was oblivious. Harley internally debated whether to put the man out of his misery. 

Peter, at this point, had paused the movie, turning to look at Harley, a subtle question in his eyes. Apparently Peter had the same idea. Harley nodded.

“Uh, Mr. Captain America sir-” Peter began.

Steve chuckled. “You can call me Steve.”

“Well uh, Mr. Steve, we’re not just friends. We’re also dating.”

Steve’s eyes grew wide. “Like, both of you, as boys.”

Harley nodded cooly. “Yup. I assume you don’t have an issue with that.” He gave the man a look, daring him to say any differently.

Steve panicked, trying to backtrack. “No, I just- I’m still learning about all of this. I thought it was different.”

“No different than any other couple.” Harley grinned. “Now, I don’t wanna be too forward here, but, lots of kids at school thought you and Bucky were dating, and if you really thought me and Peter were similar to the two of you, you might wanna consider that.”

Steve seemed shocked as he mulled over Harley’s words. “Maybe.” He seemed to whisper to himself as he walked out of the room. 

As soon as he was gone, Peter started to giggle. “Did you just set them up?”

Harley didn’t say anything, just grinning as he turned on the movie again, settling back into place next to his boyfriend.

* * *

**3: Colleagues/Strangers**

The next time it happened was at the city science fair. Harley, in an absolute rush that morning, grabbed his experiment and only barely had it set up by the time the symposium started.

Peter, on the other hand, got to the fair early, courtesy of a ride from Ned, and had set up with plenty of time to spare. A casual glance at the chart showed that he and Harley were on opposite sides of the gym, something that he couldn’t help but frown at. The two of them did pretty similar projects, working on them together and only diverging enough to make them seem different, due to the requirement that everyone had to work alone. Peter had assumed that due to the similarity in topic, they would be closer to each other, but apparently he was going to have to go most of the day without seeing his boyfriend. 

Then the fair actually started, and so many people came by Peter’s stall that he barely had time to give a second thought to the set up. About 3 or 4 hours in, a professor at the nearby university came up to Peter, an intense look on his face as he studied Peter’s poster. When he finished he looked up at Peter. “You know, I saw another project similar to this? The other person doesn’t go to your school, but I think both of you could be good partners. The presentation block is almost over, so I could take you to him after.”

Peter looked down at his watch. There were 5 minutes left to the block. He was a little curious about who else had done a similar project. That would make 3 similar projects floating around.

The minutes passed fast, and soon enough, Peter had packed up his stuff and was ready to walk around the symposium for the next block. He would just swing by Harley’s stall after visiting this person. He quickly texted Harley to stay put before looking up at the professor and gesturing for him to lead the way. 

As the man led him across the room, Peter noted that it was in the same direction as Harley’s stall. This made more sense when the professor led him up to Harley and said, “This is the boy I was talking about.”

Peter looked over his boyfriend, noticing he was in his sweatshirt from his old school in Rose Hill. Meanwhile, Peter was in a Midtown shirt. The professor continued to introduce them. “Both of you had really similar topics, so I thought you would like to work together or something as colleagues.”

Harley sheepishly waved at him, already stating his excuse. “I got up late this morning. I didn’t realize what I put on.”

“Only you Harls.” Peter rolled his eyes, a smile on his lips.

The professor looked between the two of them, confused. “Do both of you know each other?”

Peter and Harley met each other’s eyes and laughed. “Very well.” Peter thanked the professor as the two of them set off to look around the fair together.

* * *

**4: Enemies**

In honor of the start of summer break, Peter and Harley both decided to go to the park. Or at least, that had been the plan, before Peter came across a mugging and decided Spider-Man was needed. One thing after the other, and Peter showed up to the park an hour late. 

Harley sat at the park bench, his arms crossed. “What was it this time?”

Peter at least had the decency to look embarrassed. “A mugging.”

“You couldn’t have just texted saying you were going to be late?”

“I didn’t think it was going to take that long.”

“You never think that, but you’re always late.” His voice sounded strained. “I know you need to do this, and I’m never going to stop you, but you need to tell me these things.”

“I try,” Peter said weakly. He knew he had no defense here.

“If this is trying, I’d hate to see what not trying looks like.” 

“I’m sorry that it was more important to me that I save someone from being stabbed than tell you I’ll be a few minutes late.”

“It wasn’t a few minutes. That’s the issue. I don’t expect you to put me first every time, but I expect, as your boyfriend, that you might think about me when you disappear for hours on end.” Harley knew he was starting to raise his voice and they couldn’t afford to be heard in public, but he couldn’t bring himself to stop. The frustration of Peter’s constant flaky behavior was getting to him.

At that moment, a mom walked over from where she was sitting and watching her kids play. “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but notice the two of you. I didn’t really hear what you were saying, but it’s clear you two don’t like each other. I just wanted to ask that if you were going to fight or anything, you take it away from here. I don’t want the kids to see this.”

Harley paused, confusion on his face. He looked down at how tightly he was gripping to the bench handle. He gently let go. Peter was looking down at his shoes, avoiding Harley’s face. Harley thanked the woman and grabbed hold of Peter’s hand, dragging him into an alleyway nearby. “I-”

Peter spoke first. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I’ll try harder to let you know.”

“I should apologize too. What you do is important, I shouldn’t have snapped. Just, please,  _ please _ tell me if you’re going to be late.”

Peter nodded, a small smile on his face. “I promise.”

Harley just grinned, holding his hand out to Peter. “Then, let go enjoy our day at the park.” 

“Of course.” Peter paused. “I can’t believe she thought we didn’t like each other.” The two of them burst out in laughter. And if they made sure to kiss in front of the woman later, that was no one’s business.

* * *

**5: Husbands**

Within the next few years, both boys had gotten used to the misunderstandings. They shrugged off brother comments with a laugh and made comments about how, yeah they were best friends and coworkers too. Most people knew they were dating, considering the media loved to cover anyone even mildly famous, and the comments mostly died off. 

One day, they were out in the nearby grocery store, grabbing some stuff for a last minute homemade dinner. Both of them finally found the time to make something together, and they thought it would be nice.

Harley held the cart as they slowly moved through the aisle. At one point, Peter climbed up onto the cart side, trying to reach for a can. “I will get it myself.”

Harley was struggling not to laugh. “Let me get it for your darlin’.”

Peter just shook his head, determined not to let his height stop him. That, of course, is when everything went wrong. The cart tipped to the side, causing Peter to fall over and into the wall, causing dozens of cans to fall. The store was quiet and empty, as it usually was on a Thursday afternoon, and the single employee there came rushing at the loud crash. 

Harley immediately leaned down, helping Peter up from the pile of cans. “Ow.” Peter groaned as he stood up. “That hurt.”

“I told you I would get it.” Harley just gave him a pointed look.

The employee stood in front of them, an exasperated smile on her face. It was clear she didn’t recognize them. Harley was quick to assure her that they would clean up the mess.

“It’s fine. You’re welcome to help, but I can take care of it. Just make sure your husband is okay first.”

Harley spluttered. Peter spoke up. “Thank you. We’re not married though.”

“Yet,” Harley muttered, surprised at how weird it felt to have Peter deny that. The ring box in his pocket felt heavy. He had planned to propose after their dinner that very day. Weirdly enough, he wasn’t worried about it. He was sure Peter would say yes. But now, their plans were slightly ruined due to the need to clean up a lot of cans.

The employee excused herself to get some boxes. Peter stood up, stretching. “I’m fine, just a little sore. It’ll go away in a few minutes.” 

“Good. Now let’s get started.” 

They both leaned down, starting to pick up the cans and organize them. Peter spoke up. “It’s weird she thought we were married.”

Harley hummed. “How weird?”

“You know, sometimes it feels like we’re already married. Like the actual pomp and ceremony means nothing because I already know I want to stay with you forever.” And wow, wasn’t that too deep for an empty grocery store aisle at 6 PM on a Thursday evening? 

Harley had plans, but he could practically feel himself throw all of them out of the window with the next sentence. “You want to get married then? Just make it official?”

Peter froze, turning to look at Harley. “Just like that?”

“Well, I was going to do this in a nicer place, but I guess this will have to do.” He pulled out the ring box. Peter gasped, bringing his hand up to his mouth as Harley knelt down on his knee, standing amongst the strewn cans on the floor.

“Peter Parker, the years since I met you have been the happiest of my life. I already know I want to spend the rest of my life with you, so will you marry me and make it official?”

“As if what I just said left any doubt. Of course, I will marry you.” Peter grinned, blinking back the tears in his eyes.

At that very moment, the employee came back. She looked at them and smiled. “Let me be the first to say congratulations.”

Peter just turned to her and said, “Thanks.” 

* * *

**+1**

Peter swayed in Harley’s arms, enjoying their first dance as a married couple. He felt like a smile was permanently plastered on his face. He looked up at Harley only to see the blond looking at him, gentle love clear in his eyes. Harley wrapped his arm further around Peter’s waist. 

“This is nice.” The southern boy whispered in Peter’s ears.

“We’re married now,” Peter said it to himself, as though the repetition would help him process it. 

“Yup. No leaving now.” Harley teased with a grin.”

“Wouldn’t want to.” 

The dance ended and they pulled off to the side. Everyone came up to them and congratulated them. Even without the matching rings, it would be hard to mistake the two as anything besides deeply and wholly in love.

**Author's Note:**

> Talk to me on tumblr @lilacsandlilies4  
> or on discord @LilacsAndLilies#4691


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